COMPUTER ASSISTED READING VERSUS TRADITIONAL PRINT FORMAT IN EFL ACADEMIC READING COMPREHENSION

The last two decades has witnessed a striking increase in computer development and technical advancement. Teaching in the information age requires that educators modify their view and transform their instructional practices to utilize technology to improve the reading ability of students. In this study two modes of reading instruction were compared with regard to their effectiveness for foreign language reading comprehension. A population of 60 EFL students was divided into two groups: Computer Assisted Reading (CAR) and print reading format. The two groups were taught by the researcher and covered the same materials in their weekly two-hour reading lesson in one semester. This study also investigated the effect of gender and the role of teacher in CAR class. The data came from the English proficiency test, reading comprehension test (Pre-test), questionnaire, reading comprehension test (Post-test), Observation, and students’ emails. The results indicated that strategy instruction had a significant impact on reading comprehension. In other words, CAR evoked more effective reading comprehension than the traditional mode, and CAR resulted in higher performance when compared to the print reading mode. The findings indicated that gender played no significant role in both classes. Finally, based on the observation and students’ emails, the researcher concluded that the nature of the teacher’s role changed in CAR class when compared with the traditional class.